“Extreme human situations are the focus of the first issue of ‘Ja, Mai’“- the Bavarian State Opera announces its new festival, which from now on will be dedicated to early and contemporary music theater every spring. So the first edition in this hopefully pandemic-relaxed May will not exactly come with spring-like lightness.
The program includes an opera trilogy by Georg Friedrich Haas and Händl Klaus, combined with works by Claudio Monteverdi. It should be about “deeply existential themes such as dying, love, mental trauma and the hovering between life and death”. That sounds like a heaviness that people in Munich like to dismiss with a “yes, mei”, in the tenor of shrugging sympathy: “I woass scho, wia des is, aba des werd scho wieda!” This is how you can imagine the attitude of the city leaders when State Opera director Serge Dorny is said to have made representations there to a petition.
Because in 2020 the state capital had already cut the subsidy of 4.9 million euros, which has been customary for three decades, by half, and in 2021 it was canceled entirely. It will not be paid out in 2022 either (nor will the municipal 500,000 to the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz) in order to be able to meet the city treasurer’s savings requirements for the cultural budget.
“Saving our free scene is more important than saving Söder’s budget,” said culture officer Anton Biebl in the city council. In return, the ministry stopped municipal funding for the Munich Philharmonic (104,300 euros) and the Kammerspiele (57,300 euros). A “consensual” action, says Art Minister Bernd Sibler. He is very committed to ensuring that the resumption of mutual services can be agreed by 2023. On the other hand, Mayor Dieter Reiter also signals that he wants to find a solution – if the budget situation allows it.
So nothing is certain to be planned. Does such an “extreme situation” arise for the state opera house? “Of course, the lack of funds does not make planning any easier, but nothing is available at the moment,” said State Opera spokesman Michael Wuerges. There was no talk of atmospheric disturbances between the opera and the town hall after the subsidy was canceled: “The relationship with municipal politics is good, characterized by openness and the will to break new ground. Mr. Dorny exchanged views with the Munich city leaders about the importance of the city for them Opera and vice versa. But also about how the Bavarian State Opera will work more closely with the city’s institutions in the future.”
One project is the “Yes, May Festival”, which is always to be organized in conjunction with neighboring art and cultural institutions, such as the Kammerspiele, the Volkstheater or the Munich Chamber Orchestra. “One wish of the city’s politicians would be to support these new paths not only ideally, but also financially, in order to enable cross-city and cross-institutional projects,” explains Wuerges. So far, the State Opera has managed the festival financially alone.
As far as the missing almost five million euros in the State Opera’s budget are concerned, the house is trying, according to Wuerges, to “absorb this short-term”. In times of a pandemic, the State Opera would have access to the aid funds that all other state cultural institutions can also draw on. In this way, the Free State compensates for the subsidy that the state capital no longer has. What long-term effects the municipal savings decision will have on the house cannot yet be foreseen.
Economically, the house has two extreme years behind it. Wuerges lists: “Income has decreased from 2019 to 2020, namely by 25 million euros, the operating cost subsidy from the Free State has increased from 71.8 to 87.6 million euros.” The box-office result looked bad in the season that was badly hit by the first lockdown. And that at a house that could always build on almost full capacity in the parquet and in the stands. Here, the share of revenue fell from 36.6 to 16.2 percent, and the well-received live streams behind a pay wall didn’t help either.
“The result of the 2021 annual financial statements will not be better than 2020,” predicts the opera spokesman. After the municipal money tap was turned off, the Free State must now compensate for the 4.9 million euros more.
Higher ticket prices are not planned
What is the situation in 2022? The spectator load is increased step by step. In the budget for 2022, the Bavarian state government is assuming the following planning data for the State Opera: total income 29.6 million euros, total expenditure 117.5 million, necessary operating cost subsidy 87.9 million. According to Wuerges, the State Opera will not take nearly as much as usual in 2022 either, due to the effects of the pandemic.
But how can money be generated – by raising the ticket prices, as with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra or the Kammerspiele? Here’s a resounding no: “We have no plans to introduce a new ticket pricing model, let alone increase ticket prices.” (By the way, there is no scope for this at the Gärtnerplatztheater either). During the pandemic, however, it was possible to bring opera closer to a younger audience with the U-30 program. Almost 10,000 U-30 tickets were sold this season, 60 per performance with sometimes only 525 seats.
The special magnet effect of the Bavarian State Opera on the audience was also due to the star system in the past few years of the Bachler era. In the case of audience favorites such as Jonas Kaufmann, a move towards Salzburg or the Vienna State Opera is noticeable. Kaufmann has now also sung Peter Grimes in the Haus am Ring, which will soon also premiere in Munich – with a different line-up. And in the next season, so it is rumored, Kaufmann will be on the Vienna stage with Asmik Grigorian in a “Turandot”.
Is the Bavarian State Opera falling behind here, is it consciously breaking new ground under Dorny, away from the expensive singer cult? “I can’t confirm this impression,” says Michael Wuerges. “Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Christian Gerhaher, Diana Damrau, Wolfgang Koch and others can be experienced both in this season and in the following seasons in new productions and in the repertoire of the Bavarian State Opera.”